Media Rights Agenda (MRA)

The African Declaration on Internet Rights and Freedoms is intended to promote human rights standards and principles of openness in Internet policy formulation and implementation on the continent.

The chairman of Shabelle Media Network and the director of SkyFM have been detained in the National Intelligence and Security Agency’s underground prison, a place where suspected terrorists are being kept.

This week, a resolution on the importance of protecting human rights online was discussed at the 26th UN Human Rights Council Session in Geneva. Read the oral statement on this resolution led by ARTICLE 19 and supported by several IFEX members.

Over the past two weeks, Nigerian military and police have detained journalists, confiscated print publications and intercepted vehicles in an attempt to halt the circulation of critical information.

On 6 June 2014, soldiers in Abuja and Warri, Delta State, impounded the distribution vans of Leadership and The Nation newspapers and confiscated the day’s editions of the publications.

On 24 May 2014, armed men brandishing various weapons including guns, clubs and machetes attacked the crew of African Independent Television (AIT) in Ikere Ekiti, southwest Nigeria.

Daily Trust Newspaper correspondent Hir Joseph was accused of publishing “injurious falsehood” after he wrote an article that said female police officers attended a protest calling for the release of Chibok’s abducted schoolgirls.

Onimisi Isiaka Yusuf was arrested for posting pictures of the attempted jailbreak by detainees suspected to be members of Boko Haram.